A STRICT Muslim father who cut his daughter?s throat because he felt she had become too Westernised was yesterday given a life sentence for her murder.

A STRICT Muslim father who cut his daughter?s throat because he felt she had become too Westernised was yesterday given a life sentence for her murder.

Heshu Yones, 16, was beaten for months before the ?honour killing? and had planned to run away from home, begging her father to leave her alone.

But Abdalla Yones was ?disgusted and distressed? by her relationship with a Lebanese Christian A-level student and launched a frenzied attack on the teenager at their family home in Acton, west London.

She was stabbed 11 times and bled to death from her throat being cut.

Yones, an Iraqi Kurd, tried to kill himself after the attack by slashing his own throat and throwing himself 25ft from a third floor balcony at the block of flats.

He was in hospital for several months and claimed his daughter was the victim of Al-Qaeda, saying extremists had broken into their flat, killed Heshu and attacked him before throwing him off the balcony.

But yesterday he became the first person in Britain to plead guilty to murder in a so-called ?honour killing? case.

He appeared to have been hit by the horror of the murder and called for the judge to sentence him to death for his ?appalling? crime.

Yones, 48, described Heshu as ?the jewel in his crown?.

But a farewell letter from the teenager, who planned to run away from home, painted a picture of a brutal home life.

It read, ?Bye Dad, sorry I was so much trouble.

?Me and you will probably never understand each other, but I?m sorry I wasn?t what you wanted, but there?s some things you can?t change.

?Hey, for an older man you have a good strong punch and kick.

?I hope you enjoyed testing your strength on me, it was fun being on the receiving end. Well done.?

Yones fled Iraq with his wife and three children 10 years ago after being passionately involved in the Kurdish struggle for independence in Iraq.

He claimed asylum in Britain and was granted indefinite leave to stay but found it difficult to adjust to British life, the Old Bailey heard.

Judge Neil Denison, sentencing, said, ?This is, on any view, a tragic story arising out of irreconcilable cultural differences between traditional Kurdish values and the values of western society.?

Mr Icah Peart QC, defendingf, said his client wanted to die and was asking for the death sentence.

Judge Denison told Yones, ?The killing and the manner of it was, as you have recognised, an appalling act.

?There is one sentence that the law allows me to pass where the crime is murder and that is the sentence I do pass ? life.?